Piezoelectric properties of roll-to-roll fabricated polylactic acid films

In this work, we report functionality of polylactide acid (PLA) as piezoelectric degradable material, which has given in the preliminary studies the piezoelectric sensitivities are on the range of 10 pC/N, depending on PLA film details. However, this is very promisingly close to commercial alternatives, such as fluoropolymer polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF), which is expensive fluoropolymer, not biodegradable or recyclable. Further, we have demonstrated the manufacturing of PLA films in roll-to-roll pilot line, which gives the promise that this type of sensors could act as elements in the future trillion sensors vision, where the large number of individual sensors are required.